Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Lost and Found

I have been looking for an important object in my house for a few weeks now. The search for a special napkin ring nags at me at strange hours of the day and often times interferes with my ability to think. I fear sharing these thoughts with others because it really seems such a silly thing to fret over. But it’s not really the missing object, rather, it is the memories and the sentiment the object holds. It’s the table set with a special ring for each person marking their place at the family table. It’s the countless dinners prepared and eaten together. It’s the person that carefully slipped the ring off the napkin and shared a meal with us all. Yes, that napkin ring is important. What truly amazes me about the missing napkin ring is the amount of time spent thinking about where I could have lost it. This napkin ring has truly interfered with my thought processing. It makes me understand the connection between social-emotional concerns and learning. How can my loss of an item halt my learning and thinking? How do I move forward and help loosen that block? I fortunately have choices. I can simply buy an identical napkin ring and pretend it is the original and move on, or I can choose to let go.

Some of our children come to school missing more than a napkin ring. When our children come to writing (or school for that matter) how do they cope when there is a lost item, or other social emotional block? How do they let go of their missing things and move on? What choices can they make to move forward?

I don't think I have real answers to these questions, but as I think about how my simple napkin ring caused me to lose my focus, I have become even more sympathetic to those children with much more important items lost in their lives.

6 comments:

You've posed some thought provoking questions. I don't have the answers either, but I know just knowing that some of our learners may have lost something special reminds me to always be kind and caring.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Too often we forget the baggage that accompanies kids in school. When we think about what happens in our own lives and how it affects us, it helps us be more empathetic to others. "How do they let go of their missing things and move on? What choices can they make to move forward?" Great questions to ponder!

I completely agree. This past few years have really taught me to think more about a person's "availability" to learn and focus. Providing a learner choices of how they want to learn, express and respond is really important to remember. Thank you for sharing -- I hope you find it!!Clare